On the 27th we passed two of our old encampments, and halted after a
journey of 16 miles in the close vicinity of a tribe of natives, about
fifty in number, the majority of whom were boys as mischievous as
monkeys, and as great thieves too, but we reduced them to some kind of
order by a little patience. The Darling had less water than in the
previous year before the flood, but its flats were covered with grass, of
which hundreds of tons might have been cut, so that our cattle speedily
began to improve in condition.
About this time the weather was exceedingly oppressive, and heavy
thunder-clouds hung about, but no rain fell.
Our journey on the 28th was comparatively short. We passed the location
of another tribe during the day, and recovered our letter-bag, which had
been left by our messengers with a native belonging to it. Here the old
Boocolo left us and returned to Williorara.
The last days of 1845 and the few first of 1846 were exceedingly
oppressive, and the heat was almost as great as in the interior itself.
On the 5th of January we crossed over from the Darling to its ancient
channel, and on the 6th Mr. Browne left for Adelaide. On the 8th I
reached Lake Victoria, where I learnt that our old friend Nadbuck had
been speared by a native, whose jealousy he had excited, but that his
wound was not mortal. He was somewhere on the Rufus, which I did not
approach, but made a signal fire in the hope that he would have seen it,
and, had they not been spoiled, I should have thrown up a rocket at
night.
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